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Jordan’s repeal of marry-the-rapist law highlights barbaric reality of Islamic laws

Aug 2, 2017 10:08 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

“The repeal of a Jordanian law that allowed a rapist to escape prison by marrying his victim” came a little too late for a 13-year-old girl “who was coerced into an abusive marriage to her attacker as a condition for getting out of ‘protective’ state custody.”

What a victory for the next victims of rape in Jordan, and what a revolting and shocking reality, that women and young girls are subjected to such brutalities. In Sharia jurisprudence, a girl’s and woman’s “honor” is based on the most depraved practices, including female genital mutilation.

All the while, deceitful folks such as “feminist” Linda Sarsour proclaim that anti-Sharia movements do not understand Sharia and should not be concerned about the anti-woman values that have entered the West with Muslim migrants. Sarsour pontificates about women’s rights while denying the most heinous human rights abuses that are justified under Sharia; she has the right to do this in Western societies, not in the Sharia-adherent countries that she exonerates.

Some other 21st-century news:

  • A Malaysian Muslim MP and former Sharia court judge declared that 9-year-olds can marry and rapists can marry their victims.
  • A 16-year-old girl Moroccan girl killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist.
  • A rape victim in the UAE was arrested for sex outside marriage and told she had to marry her rapist.
  • A Tunisian rapist got off by marrying the 13-year-old girl he impregnated.

Now that Jordan has ended one barbaric practice against women, it still has its work cut out for it:

“‘Honor killings’ also remain a problem in Jordan and elsewhere in the region. Last year, Jordan’s top criminal court dealt with 36 killings of women, including eight “honor” cases. In 2015, it dealt with 39 slayings of women, including nine labeled “honor crimes.

“Jordan activists celebrate repeal of ‘marry the rapist’ law”, by Alice Su, Associated Press, August 1, 2017:

The repeal of a Jordanian law that allowed a rapist to escape prison by marrying his victim was bittersweet news for a Jordanian woman whose daughter was assaulted when she was just 13 years old.

Tuesday’s vote by parliament’s lower house came too late for the hairdresser’s daughter who was coerced into an abusive marriage to her attacker as a condition for getting out of “protective” state custody.

Her assailant never served a day in jail.

“Today I’m very happy that this law was cancelled,” said the 49-year-old mother of the teen, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect her daughter’s privacy since victims of sexual assault are still widely stigmatized.

“But at the same time, I’m heart-broken,” she said in a phone interview. “Where is my daughter’s justice?”

Women’s rights activists hailed Tuesday’s vote as a major victory after a years-long campaign, but said a long struggle lies ahead.

Despite the country’s pro-Western political orientation and cosmopolitan urban elites, many areas of Jordan remain socially conservative, with entrenched notions of “family honor.”

This includes the belief that having a rape victim in the family is shameful, and that such “shame” can be expunged through marriage.

Tuesday’s decision and another vote earlier this week — to prevent lenient sentences for those who kill in the name of “family honor” — must still be approved by parliament’s appointed upper house and by King Abdullah II. Such approval is expected since the royal court and the government backed the reforms.

With final approval, Jordan would join Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, which have canceled their “marry the rapist” clauses over the years. Tunisia’s repeal took place less than one week ago.

The international group Human Rights Watch called Tuesday’s vote “impressive” and said other countries should follow Jordan and Tunisia. Lebanon is considering repeal, the group said.

The clause remains on the books in Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, the Palestinian territories and Syria, as well as several countries in Latin America, the Philippines and Tajikistan, according to HRW.

Tuesday’s vote to scrap Article 308 of the penal code capped an emotional parliament debate, reflecting the schism in Jordanian society.

Parliament’s legal committee had proposed amending Article 308 so that girls between the ages of 15 and 18 would be able to marry their rapists. They portrayed the marriage option as a way to protect minors.

When Mustafa Khasawneh, the head of the legal committee, presented those arguments, activists in the spectators’ gallery murmured in disagreement.

Dima Barakat, a leading activist, later said that those forcing a girl to marry her rapist “are killing this girl a thousand times a day, at least.” The attacker “took away her dignity, her honor and took away her life,” Barakat said.

As the vote approached, lawmakers jumped to their feet, beckoning and yelling at others to raise their hands in support of repeal. Shouting broke out across the room while the spectators upstairs held their breath.

After several minutes of chaos, the repeal was announced.

Cheers and applause erupted in the hall. Some of the activists embraced one another, laughing. “This is a victory for the women’s movement and human rights movement in Jordan,” said Salma Nims, the secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women.

The Islamic Action Front, a group of lawmakers affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, voted in favor of repeal, citing religious grounds.

Religious law, or sharia, does not condone protecting rapists, said legislator Dima Tahboub, spokeswoman for the IAF.

She said much work needs to be done in Jordan to protect women from violence. Jordan lacks psychological and social support for victims and their families, she said. Public attitudes stigmatize victims rather than supporting them. Children borne of rape grow up ostracized, with less access to civil rights.

“We need to create an atmosphere where the victim is being supported by the wider community,” Tahboub said.

Jordan also lacks safe shelters for women at risk of family attack due to “honor” issues, and often detains women in protective custody, keeping them in prison or in shelters that they cannot leave.

When the hairdresser’s daughter became pregnant after being assaulted repeatedly, the state took her to a shelter for underage girls at risk. There, the mother was told that her daughter could not leave unless she married her rapist.

“I accepted the situation in order to protect her,” the mother said Tuesday. “They gave me no choice. She did not want to marry him, but she was threatened by everyone. She had no choice.”

So-called “honor killings” also remain a problem in Jordan and elsewhere in the region. Last year, Jordan’s top criminal court dealt with 36 killings of women, including eight “honor” cases. In 2015, it dealt with 39 slayings of women, including nine labeled “honor crimes…..

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Filed Under: Featured, Jordan, Sharia, women's rights in Islam Tagged With: King Abdullah II


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Comments

  1. Michael Copeland says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 10:17 am

    There is a risk that this may turn out to be for foreign consumption only. The imams and tribal leaders will not take kindly to “man-made” law overriding their traditional powers.
    Saudi Arabia officially abolished slavery in the early 1960s, but it still goes on.

    • nicu says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 10:30 am

      so true — they are weak and pathetic ” men ” ! Women must stand for themselves …. Morocco has the same laws ..Merkel loves the Moroccan king and there are too many of them here !

  2. lebel says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 10:29 am

    “The Islamic Action Front, a group of lawmakers affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, voted in favor of repeal, citing religious grounds.

    Religious law, or sharia, does not condone protecting rapists, said legislator Dima Tahboub, spokeswoman for the IAF.”

    Funny no one mentions this. Taqqiya? crappiya (taqqiya about taqqiya)?

    • Karen says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 7:17 pm

      I wonder what they are up to, with their pro-repeal vote. Doesn’t seem like the MO of the Muslim Brotherhood.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 7:48 pm

      lebel wrote:

      “The Islamic Action Front, a group of lawmakers affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, voted in favor of repeal, citing religious grounds…

      Funny no one mentions this.
      ………………….

      See? There’s no problem with Islam, you filthy Islamophobes.

      The Islamic Action Front may have been opposed to rapists being able to legally go on raping their victims in this instance–well and good–but they still support Hamas and the genocide of the Jews, as well as Jihad terror:

      http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/JacobThomas50922.htm

      Funny lebel doesn’t mention *this*. Well…actually, given his posting history as a consistent apologist for Islam this is not really surprising at all.

    • Pumbar says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm

      They’re probably stockpiling stones. Think of all the ‘fun’ they’ve been missing out on.
      Now they can get back to a proper shariah stoning for all involved.

  3. miriamrove says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 11:15 am

    I just got back from Iran. All of those places are one s…hole bigger than the other. I do not think by canceling this law anything will change. They are so entrenched in the 8th century and the barbaric teachings of their prophet and f.. Koran. Nothing will change in those countries. Nothing. M

    • Karen says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 7:24 pm

      I found the mention of the honor/shame culture very interesting. Certainly nothing will change unless that attitude goes, and it’s very prevalent throughout the Middle East. Image your mother and father being ashamed because their child was a victim of rape. Imagine a Sharia-interpreted court requiring 4 witnesses to confirm rape. As if the troubles of the victim weren’t already too much to bear.

      • Louis Schwartz says

        Aug 3, 2017 at 9:38 pm

        Karen: “4 Male witnesses”…even more difficult.

    • Jen says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 7:50 pm

      Oh Come On! That’s not fair! ALL cultures are equal. (Sarc off!)

      When will the madness end?

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Probably true, miriam.

  4. tedh754@gmail.com says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 11:25 am

    I wonder what Queen Rania thought of such a law.

    • David says

      Aug 2, 2017 at 3:55 pm

      Nothing particular. As long as that whore lives in her ivory tower she could care less what happens to her fellow women, right?

  5. RodSerling says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    I’m skeptical. The repeal may just be show.

  6. gravenimage says

    Aug 2, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    Jordan’s repeal of marry-the-rapist law highlights barbaric reality of Islamic laws
    ……………………..

    Finally–and this is in “moderate” Jordan. Girls in more more orthodox stretches of Dar-al-Islam are out of luck.

  7. mortimer says

    Aug 3, 2017 at 9:44 am

    This repeal of a barbaric law is the tip of the iceberg. The fact that Jordanian women have grown a conscience in this matter is a hopeful sign that their conscience may eventually be strong enough to overthrow this 7th-century barbarism entirely.

    Islam is a MISOGYNY CULT and Muslim women are the ones who can end it. When Muslim women awaken all Muslim countries will be transformed into modern ones…and not till then.

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